research-article

Polymetric Views-A Lightweight Visual Approach to Reverse Engineering

Authors:

Stéphane DucasseAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume 29, Issue 9

Pages 782 - 795

https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2003.1232284

Published: 01 September 2003 Publication History

Abstract

Reverse engineering software systems has become a major concern in software industry because of their sheer size and complexity. This problem needs to be tackled since the systems in question are of considerable worth to their owners and maintainers. In this article, we present the concept of a polymetric view, a lightweight software visualization technique enriched with software metrics information. Polymetric views help to understand the structure and detect problems of a software system in the initial phases of a reverse engineering process. We discuss the benefits and limits of several predefined polymetric views we have implemented in our tool CodeCrawler. Moreover, based on clusters of different polymetric views, we have developed a methodology which supports and guides a software engineer in the first phases of a reverse engineering of a large software system. We have refined this methodology by repeatedly applying it on industrial systems and illustrate it by applying a selection of polymetric views to a case study.

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Cited By

Hoff ALungu MSeidl CLanza MBaysal OLinares-Vasquez MMoran KSteinmacher I(2024)Immersive Software Archaeology: Collaborative Exploration and Note Taking in Virtual RealityProceedings of the 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3643916.3644438(387-391)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643916.3644438
Hoff ALungu MSeidl CLanza MBaysal OLinares-Vasquez MMoran KSteinmacher I(2024)Collaborative Software Exploration with Multimedia Note Taking in Virtual RealityProceedings of the 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3643916.3644427(346-357)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2024
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Romero-Organvidez DHorcas JGalindo JBenavides D(2024)Data visualization guidance using a software product line approachJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112029213:COnline publication date: 1-Jul-2024
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Index Terms

Polymetric Views-A Lightweight Visual Approach to Reverse Engineering
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software post-development issues
      1. Software reverse engineering
    2. Software verification and validation
      1. Process validation
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Object oriented languages

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cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Volume 29, Issue 9

September 2003

95 pages

ISSN:0098-5589

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Copyright © Copyright © 2003 IEEE. All Rights Reserved.

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IEEE Press

Publication History

Published: 01 September 2003

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Cited By

Hoff ALungu MSeidl CLanza MBaysal OLinares-Vasquez MMoran KSteinmacher I(2024)Immersive Software Archaeology: Collaborative Exploration and Note Taking in Virtual RealityProceedings of the 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3643916.3644438(387-391)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643916.3644438
Hoff ALungu MSeidl CLanza MBaysal OLinares-Vasquez MMoran KSteinmacher I(2024)Collaborative Software Exploration with Multimedia Note Taking in Virtual RealityProceedings of the 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3643916.3644427(346-357)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643916.3644427
Romero-Organvidez DHorcas JGalindo JBenavides D(2024)Data visualization guidance using a software product line approachJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112029213:COnline publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112029
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Horcas JGalindo JBenavides DFelfernig AFuentes L(2022)Variability in data visualizationProceedings of the 26th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A10.1145/3546932.3546993(55-66)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2022
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